Telecom major Bharti Airtel has earmarked around $3.5 billion as capital expenditure (capex) for mobile services and infrastructure business for the next financial year, a top official said.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel has earmarked around $3.5 billion as capital expenditure (capex) for mobile services and infrastructure business for the next financial year, a top official said in New Delhi on Thursday.

“About $2.5 billion have been earmarked as capex for mobile services and approximately $1 billion for the passive infrastructure,” Bharti Group deputy chief executive Akhil Gupta said.

Gupta said around $3 billion will be invested in the company's tower business run by Bharti Infratel (a wholly owned subsidiary) and Indus Towers, an independent tower company formed by Bharti, Vodafone and Idea to provide passive infrastructure services in India.

However, this capex does not include the amount the company will spend during 3G auctions.

“Most of the money will be raised internally for 3G auctions if the bids are sensible. However, we cannot state any figure right now,” Gupta said.

The company has received spectrum for second generation (2G) mobile services in nine more circles and eight applications are still pending with the Department of Telecom (DoT), Gupta said.

Talking about making corporate governance guidelines more stringent, Gupta said: “Our corporate governance is not guided by any mishap in India or internationally. At Bharti, it is a constant exercise on trying to improve our internal policies.”